


But She's Always a Peasant to Me

by joyster



Series: The Beauty in Imperfection [14]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Royalty, Slow Romance, Zutara, Zutara Month, Zutara Month 2015, changes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 01:12:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10979262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joyster/pseuds/joyster
Summary: "Even with the benefit of foresight, Zuko still wouldn't have imagined the events to go as they had." The unveiling of thenewSouthern Water Tribe strikes a bittersweet note but comfort is more than saying the right words at the right time.





	But She's Always a Peasant to Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written For Zutara Month Day 14: Royalty

Zuko received a letter in mid-spring regarding the progress in the south. Of course the letter was from Sokka so the actual business side of things took a back seat.

Although he saw Aang more often, Zuko felt a stronger affinity with Sokka. They were closer in age but more than that they had surprisingly similar outlooks. Zuko was also rather fond of Suki so receiving a message usually meant updates on what was going on with her in perhaps too much detail.

The paragraph tacked onto the end of the letter regarding actual politics and such, divulged that Katara had been selected as their Fire Nation ambassador and a former Northerner, Keanu, the ambassador for the Earth Kingdom.

Katara.

He felt like he hadn't seen her in ages.

It had been a while; she'd visited fleetingly maybe eight months ago. She'd stayed three days in the palace and used it as a base camp to aid the healers in local hospitals and help rebuild still damaged homes.

It had been just after a terrible wet season and riots regarding food shortages.

She'd travelled his country for some time and send him frequent updates via letter.

Last he'd heard from her (perhaps a month or so earlier) she was in the Northern Water Tribe completing her healing training.

And now she'd be moving to the Fire Nation. Zuko wouldn't be surprised if she'd only been in the South Pole for 4 months in the last whole year.

When Katara arrived she was paler than he remembered. Perhaps it wasn't the right thing to open with. Maybe he should've said _"hi"_ or _"Welcome to The Fire Nation"_ or _"It's good to see you."_ But no, to expect any of those is expecting too much.

"You look pale. Are you sick?"

Of course had she been sick she would've been the most beautiful sick person he'd ever seen in his life. She was obviously shocked but he was grateful that most of the time he said dumb things like that it was to her and their good friends.

"I just spent quite some time in the North Pole. They haven't been getting too much sun up there." She smiled at him and he's already super red and tongue tied so he just nods in response.

He's so glad to see her though. The last friend to visit him was Aang and that had been exhausting.

She was there indefinitely. He found that immensely comforting.

\- - - 

Invitation to the unveiling of the finally completed renovations of the Southern Water Tribe arrived at the beginning of summer.

Katara had been in the Fire Nation as an ambassador for 3 months at the point and already making a difference in the attitudes of his council. She was staying in a guest suite of the palace a hallway down from the royal wing. Their friendship had drastically improved (or maybe re-improved - they were recapturing the bond they had during the war) in that time frame and Zuko was becoming dependant on her to remind him to have a life outside of being a Fire Lord too.

Her first night she learnt of his reoccurring nightmares and since then she'd be quick to his side to comfort him and pull him out of his personal trauma.

Her first week he learnt of her being harassed by his people and since then he'd increased his counter propaganda and introduced stronger anti-discrimination laws.

The unveiling would be combined with the official celebration of the 2nd anniversary of the war ending. Leaders from all around the world would be congregating in the city (or he assumed it would be a city now) that was created from the sleet left behind 100 years of being trodden on in the war.

Katara was in the gardens when Zuko told her about it, she'd had a long day in the hospital and was lying on the grass on her back. Her hair was splayed out in a mess of chocolatey curls with blades of vibrant green grass cutting out through it.

Her eyes were closed and Zuko almost felt guilty for stirring her; she seemed so tired.

She laughed when he told her she was invited.

"I didn't think I'd need an invite, I mean it's my home."

She rolled onto her side and propped herself up on an elbow to look at him.

They were really good friends.

So he wished that he didn't notice how beautiful she looked with tousled hair and an easy smile.

He also wished that he wasn't so prone to blushing because there he was doing it again.

It got worse when she laughed at him.

Which she did…

Often.

"It would be like you inviting Iroh here. He knows that at any moment he could waltz in and you'd welcome him. No invite required." She'd gesticulate with her free hand. He liked the way she did that. It was like she had so much excitement and passion for what she was saying that it was overflowing into her arm movements.

"I was just telling you it was on..." He kicks aimlessly at a clump of grass.

She started to stand. When she smiled it was a tired one, understandably as she was half asleep in the sunshine when he found her, but it's so brilliantly warm. Her kindness radiates from her and he's glad she's there and feels comfortable enough with him to be like this.

"Thank you _Fire Lord_ ," She said it playfully, as if it's a nickname rather than his title.

He likes the way she says it.

"I must be pretty special if the most powerful man in the world is my message boy," she faltered a little mid sentence but recovered well.

"I'm pretty sure that's Aang's title, can't take it away from the kid."

She smiled again but it was different this time. Like she knew something he didn't.

He knew because he'd seen that kind of expression on almost every person he's ever known.

"Your Majesty, Ambassador, Dinner is served in the main dining hall."

Zuko offered her an arm, it felt like the appropriate thing to do. It was exercising the good manners his mother had drilled into him at a young age. No more than that.

\- - - 

Even with the benefit of foresight, Zuko still wouldn't have imagined the events to go as they had.

He couldn't believe that, after all the excitement and wistfulness Katara had about returning home while they were travelling, the first day after their arrival she spent it crying to him on the ship.

Hakoda had thought it would be a wonderful surprise for her that she'd be declared a Princess of the Southern Water Tribe.

He thought she'd be happy.

He hadn't 100% pleased with her being an ambassador but there were so many pros and so few cons and she'd been so excited in her letters.

The Fire Nation offered women freedoms that, despite his more liberal attitudes in comparison to his Northern counterpart, he found unbelievable. He hated that the little girl he'd seen so little of when he was away from home now spent so little of her time at home. Being a princess made her an even more eligible bachelorette (even though Sokka was next in line as Chief).

Perhaps suggesting she start thinking about settling down, back in the south, to take her place around the cooking fires as a wife wasn't the best idea after not seeing your daughter for almost 6 months.

The fact she was going to be declared a princess wasn't the only issue.

It was everything.

Back on the ship Zuko and Katara had tried to play Pai Sho. Neither was particularly endowed in the way of tactics or patience trivially so eventually they just started flicking the pieces at each other. Katara ended up getting one down his billowy sleeve and Zuko went utterly red when he managed to get one to ricochet off her chin down her top. In the process Katara told him stories about home. She told him about how they'd all climb under Gran Gran's sleeping furs together on the coldest nights in winter and rotate who was on the outer edges (inspired by the behaviour of the otter penguins. She told him about the small tight knit community and how her Gran Gran practically single handed-ly stopped everyone one starving when all the men left.

Despite the increasingly cold temperatures she was still gloriously warm company. She'd hum around the ship; offer to help the ship hands and chefs. More than both of those she offered Zuko conversation and companionship. More often than not they'd sit in his office (which an adviser had insisted on him having in his private ship), with a fire crackling creating the only ambient noise and just read. Different books, silently, together.

He was looking forward to their arrival because she was. He was slightly nervous to reacquaint with her Grandmother after last time but apparently, according to Katara, Gran Gran believed that the Zuko she first met (getting close to 3 years earlier) was _"in desperate need of a new haircut, a hug and a kick in the pants"_.

Katara would then proudly state that he'd gotten all of those things so her Gran'd have to be in some way happy. Then she'd rest her head on his shoulder and giggle and, despite Zuko perhaps not totally enjoying the prospect of his former style and attitude choices being mocked, he'd smile and let out a silent chuckle.

They'd been reading by the fire, him on the loveseat with his feet on the coffee table and her lounging on the same loveseat with her feet on him, when Admiral Jee (apparently having trouble with authority figures helps a man avoid one of the greatest loses in Fire Nation Naval history), who was the Captain of their vessel, announced that the Southern Water Tribe was now in view and arrival would be in 2 hours.

She'd let out an adorable squeak of excitement, gotten up in a hurry and grabbed her parka which hung by the door before briskly making her way towards the deck. Zuko picked up her book (which she'd haphazardly flung in the process) and placed a marker in it before grabbing his own parka, a burgundy sort of colour that came from trying to dye something blue red, and following her out of the ship.

When he caught up she was standing on the bow, wrapped in blue and fur, motionless, staring at the emerging settlement in the distance.

The fact it was even visible from such a distance was a testament to how much the village had grown.

The closer they got, the more detail was visible…and the more disheartened Katara seemed to be.

Though there weren't the huge walls encircling it like those still erect in the north, there was a harbour city look to the place. The snow glowed and there was glare from the Fire Nation steel doors and frames apparent in the sun. There was a dock made of ice, huge to house the large trade vessels that docked there. Sokka's old watch tower was long gone, replaced with a low building with a tower for the same purpose. There were sentries posted, spaced evenly and standing ramrod in brilliant blues. There were tiers of buildings, across the tundra and crowds of people milling about.

They were arriving early; most of the other foreign dignitaries weren't arriving for another 2 days. The only other overseas ship in the dock was an Earth Kingdom one that Zuko assumed brought with it Toph, his Uncle or possibly the other ambassador.

On their way up to the Chief's house (which was far smaller than the palace Arnook lived in but still incredibly spacious), guided by a person dressed like a tribe member that Katara didn't recognise at all, she mumbled under her breath, _"everything has changed"_.

She was greeted by her father at the door. Zuko got to apologise to her Grandmother in person. Katara and Hakoda disappeared to talk, Sokka was apparently in the market with Suki, and Pakku was teaching so Zuko sat with Kanna, awkwardly. When the sound of yelling and possibly crying came from the room the father and daughter had gone into Kanna offered to teach the Fire Lord to cook her 5 flavour soup.

Her surprised even himself with how quickly he said yes.

\- - - 

"So, Fire Lord, they want to name me Princess of the Peasants." Her voice was dark and humourless and he cringed at the term he once referred to her with. "Princess Katara. That's all I'll be referred to as. No Master Katara, Sifu Katara, Ambassador Katara because my abilities, teaching and political worth are unimportant when I'm a woman in the water tribe…"

They were sitting on the bow of the ship but with their backs to the city. It was late summer but it still was cold and she'd been wise enough to grab a fur as she'd stormed out, dragging him with her. She'd been crying, talking about how everything had changed and that they were more Northern Water Tribe than anything else these days. Never mind that her father hadn't succumbed officially to any of the other original traditions of their people.

"My sister was a princess and that didn't stop her being formidable…"

Katara guffawed and sniffed simultaneously and wiped her tears with her sleeve. "It's different here. A princess here is just a political pawn. They have even less freedom than a normal woman…"

"It isn't like you're not still going to be a master, sifu and ambassador…"

"But for how long? How long until I'm downgraded to a trophy then married off for some political purpose and then expected to give up myself to be a good wife? After Yue's sacrifice the North is without a lineage, are they going to shack me up with some icehole in her stead?"

After a few moments of stunned silence while Zuko tried to catch up and answer the questions she leans against him.

"I'm sorry" she whispered. Her voice broke and it was almost husky after all the crying she'd done. He awkwardly pat her one the back and when she didn't pull away, left his hand there, pressed against her ribcage on the outside of thick robes. "I just don't want to have everything I've ever done to be tarnished by the idea that I'm somehow better than anyone else because I'm a princess. Like the reason I could train the Avatar and make a difference in the war, as a woman, was because I was somehow already special and that means that it isn't possible for others."

"Well…" Zuko, for exactly the 13th time that night, asked himself why she ran to him and dragged him out here rather than Suki or someone. Not that he wasn't immensely honoured that she was so comfortable with him but he was rather rotten at consoling people. He wracked his brain trying to think so something to say to remind her that her legacy won't change because she won't, he opens his mouth and, "You'll always be a peasant to me", comes out.

He immediately regretted it.

They both froze for a moment. A cold breeze brings icy sea foam into his face.

Then she laughs and snuggles closer into him, further wrapping the fur around them both. "Believe it or not," she said with a small smile, "that helped. Thank you."

\- - - 

They slept on the ship that night. They were found in his office with the fire out, her lying on the loveseat and him lying on the floor right beside it, sharing the fur blanket, asleep, the next morning by her concerned father and his amused Uncle.

Sokka and Katara becoming officially known as a Prince and a Princess was scheduled a day after the anniversary of the war and a week after the party from the Fire Nation arrived.

\- - - 

When he first got to speak to her after the ceremony it was with the whole Gaang. She looked bewildered, kind of numb, and like she felt the pearl hairpiece was too much.

"Look at you," Toph started, the irony of the figure of speak not lost, "One step closer to being a bona-fide Sugar Queen". The young heiress laughed, as did Aang and Katara but Zuko kind of just stared at her. _Sugar Queen_. The prospect of her becoming his queen danced across his imagination before being quashed by his poor self-esteem and inferiority complex.

In his mind, from the moment her knew her, as in really knew her, and what she was really like, she was more a goddess than woman, more a leader than a follower and more a princess that a peasant. But that was because she was better than them all. He knew that she was happier to be a woman, a follower and a peasant because that gave her more freedom to choose her own path and be notable for her own merits. It was this that he found so admirable about her. She empowered people by setting a standard or expectation for more but she never really wanted it to be about her and her power because that wasn't what any of it was about.

What made Katara great was that she saw the potential in the peasants more than any other princess he'd ever known.

To him, she was higher than royalty.

To him, she was _good_.

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda wrote this one with that title in mind (inspired by 'She's Always A Woman To Me' by Billy Joel). I'm an unashamed fan of awkward Zuko. I like the idea of him cooking with Kanna and her seeing him now as good for her granddaughter. I believe Gran Gran totally understands Katara and that they're very alike. I think she'd encourage her to leave home and convinced Hakoda to loosen the strings because she can take care of herself. I also love it when he put his foot in his mouth (not sure if that's a figure of speech everywhere but just in case, not literally) and unwittingly says something not quite clever. I find it cute.


End file.
